1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved liquid for transporting suspended solids, the liquid contains water, surfactant, hydrocarbon, and optionally cosurfactant and/or electrolyte. Lamellar micelles are present in the composition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Zlochower and Schulman, in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 24, No. 1, May 1967 pp. 115-124 define a liquid crystal obtained from a composition consisting of amino methyl propanol and amino butanol oleate microemulsions of water and benzene. The initial solution, i.e. before formation of the liquid crystal, is an isotropic solution consisting of spherical micelles of decyl trimethylammonium bromide and chloroform in water. This is titrated with chloroform to form the liquid crystal and upon further addition of the chloroform, a second isotropic solution is formed with the chloroform as the external phase.
Canadian Pat. No. 921,690 teaches an oil recovery process using a micellar system containing 2-16% surfactant, 3-20% hydrocarbon, 1-5% alcohol and the residue water. The composition exhibits birefringence, shear thickening behavior at low shear rates and shear thinning behavior at high shear rates, etc. These systems do not exhibit retro-viscous properties as do Applicants' compositions.
Both oil-external and water-external micellar dispersions (this term includes microemulsions, micellar solutions, etc.) are described in the art, e.g. see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,254,714, to Gogarty et al.; 3,497,006 to Jones et al.; 3,506,070 and 3,507,071 to Jones. The dispersions contain petroleum sulfonates (average equivalent weight = 350-525), hydrocarbon, water, cosurfactant (can be alcohol, etc.) and/or electrolyte. These dispersions generally exhibit a decrease in viscosity upon increase in flow rate.
Cameron in U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,164 transports comminuted coal (e.g., 10-200 mesh) slurried in shale oil while subjecting the slurry to pyrolysis (850.degree.-950.degree.F.) to visbreak the shale oil and to release liquid products from the coal.
Titus in U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,692 transports crushed oil shale in an oil shale/solvent slurry while heating the slurry to extract the shale oil. The solvent can be crude oil, retorted shale oil, etc.
Other patents representative of the art include U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,263 which teaches mixing coal and water with a high specific gravity, non-carbonaceous material and then transporting it in a pipeline. Canadian Pat. No. 702,627 transports suspensions of subdivided solids in pipelines in the form of a homogeneous suspension. U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,095 transports insoluble bulk solids suspended in a pseudo-plastic fluid. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,264,038 and 3,359,040 transport solids in a pipeline. U.S. Pat. No. 2,672,370 to Jones et al. teaches transporting coal suspended in water.
Also, it is generally known that solids such as sand can be slurried in water and the resulting slurry pipelined.
Applicants have discovered a process of improving the transportation of solids suspended in a liquid medium.